Touch Starved

Chapter 10 - Hyperspace

Author's Note: Yes, this chapter has a lot more Vaderkin-Obi-Wan time. I know some of y'all missed it, and me too, tbh. ^-^ xDXD

WARNING: Depression (major depression), suicidal tendencies, slight (or more than slight) possessiveness.

~ Amina Gila

The Council meetings takes over an hour, not that Obi-Wan expected anything different. He knew it would be a long debate about everything, not to mention the many revelations that he had to make. And then, of course, there's the topic of Anakin. Anakin, who is a Sith. Anakin, who the Council wants to imprison, if not worse.

And Obi-Wan has no idea what to do about any of it.

In the end, they agreed that they would wait to take any actions against Anakin until after the mess on Zygerria has been dealt with. Plo will be taking his fleet to Kadavo, while Obi-Wan and Anakin take a few Star Destroyers to Zygerria itself to locate and rescue the colonists who have already been taken to the planet. It won't be easy, but they did it previously, so they can do it again, and this time, it will be without all the other, unpleasant parts of it.

Once they're done on Zygerria, they are to return to Coruscant at once where Anakin will be detained and questioned. The Council plans to assess how much of a threat he is after that questioning is complete. It's far better than anything Obi-Wan was hoping for, so why does he have a pit of gnawing worry in his gut which is telling him that something is wrong? It doesn't make sense, and the lengthy meditation session which he had after the meeting wasn't any more enlightening at helping him sort out his thoughts.

Obi-Wan is still torn between what he needs to do, his obligations and duties which he hasn't had to deal with in years, and the desire to protect Anakin and keep him safe from harm. It's Anakin's choice, of course, but Obi-Wan can at least try. He meant what he said to the Council about how there's good in Anakin, about how he thinks that he can help him. He does think that, and more than that, he's relatively optimistic that he might actually succeed.

But he tries not to think about that too much, because if he's wrong, if Anakin can't be helped the way Obi-Wan is hoping, it will hurt even worse. He can't do anything except try though, try in the way he never did in the past. Would things have really reached this point if he'd done something different on Mustafar? He doesn't know. He'll never know, and he has to live with that guilt.

Even now, he has questions if he's doing the right thing. He doesn't know. He can hope, but he could also be wrong. He needs to have faith in himself; he needs to learn how to trust himself again. It isn't easy. Not at all. All Obi-Wan can do is his best. Maybe it won't be enough. It might not be, but he'll have to accept that. If he doesn't, then he'll never be able to get past himself enough to give Anakin the help he needs.

With that resolution in mind, Obi-Wan leaves his cabin in search of Anakin. They need to talk, especially given how badly Anakin reacted to the revelation that Obi-Wan... fears him. He does, though. In part, at least. He wishes he didn't, but there's nothing he can do about it. It's a fear that he'll have to confront, in time, preferably sooner rather than later.

Anakin is studying a holomap of the Zygerrian capital, Ahsoka and Rex at his sides, as he points out strategic points of attack. Not for the first time, Obi-Wan wonders what Anakin is really planning, because he gets the feeling that it's more extensive than merely going in and retrieving the colonists. Not that Obi-Wan can blame him, because he knows how much Anakin is against slavery... or at least how much he was against slavery.

It's hard to say anything with certainty given Vader's support of the Empire, and Obi-Wan doesn't know nearly enough of what Vader has done all these years. He thinks he ought to have known more, paid more attention, but then again, why would he have had cause to think Anakin had survived? And Anakin himself said that he was relatively unknown. Nevertheless, there's no question in his mind that slavery was as rampant as ever under Sidious... which means Vader supported it, by default, if he never did anything to stop it.